How Expensive Are Textbooks? Paul Graham Gets It Right.

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It’s simple. They don’t operate in a free market. Professors pick specific editions by certain publishers as mandatory, and student have limited ability to ‘shop around’ for deals. This - combined with the fact that more publishers constantly release new editions and are bundling products (ie: adding supplemental tools such as DVDs and study guides to their textbooks) - means that textbook prices continue to rise, more than 800 percent over the last 3 decades.

As prominent tech investor Paul Graham notes on Twitter, “Textbooks are expensive for the same reason enterprise software is bad: purchasing decisions are not made by the users.”

Instead of adding to the student's economic plight, colleges should empower students by helping them become informed consumers. Students themselves can be a part of this process by looking into and supporting the Affordable College Textbook Act.